Kelli Russell Agodon's Blog, page 135

The Alchemist's Kitchen is Available!

My good friend Susan Rich has received copies of her book The Alchemist's Kitchen and you can order yours here!

The best part of ordering your book directly from the poet is that you can get your copy signed by her (this is also wonderful if you buy them for a gift for someone). I always love to have my poetry books signed by the author whenever possible.

One fact you may not know about this book is that there is a poem in there dedicated to me. I am pretty sure this is my very first poem ded...

Coming Soon - National Poetry Month!

So April is not the cruelest month (or maybe it is depending on how you look at it), but it is also National Poetry Month...

Here are a few things that will be going on for National Poetry Month you may want to take part in--

1) Poetry Book Giveaway:
I'll have more details posted about this event this weekend, but basically that bloggers offer 2 books of poems to giveaway to their blog readers (one can be a book they wrote, another a book of poems by a favorite poet). That will be happening he...

Tackling Taxes if You Are a Self-Employed Writer, Poet and/or Artist - The Basic Organization

(I had this cartoon up last year around this time and well, I think it's funny enough to have it make a return showing...)


I am not an accountant and will not pretend to be one here.

In fact, I hate doing taxes so much, I have never done my own, but since college have paid someone to do them. Even when I was Top-Ramen-Eating broke, I went to Sears and had them done byH&R Block for $50. Taxes are an area where I believe people know more than me and I don't like to mess around with them, so I w...

Book Trailer: The Process

I promised I'd write about some of the challenges I faced with my book trailer and how I revised (or do I say edited since I'm a filmmaker now?) the first book trailer to the final product and what I did right and not-so-right.

First, you must realize, like a poem, or book title, or manuscript, when you show your finished book trailer to friends or family, they will all have different ideas of what they would like to see in your trailer or how it should be. Their opinions will overlap and not...

Saturday Thoughts

The Two I's--

At the final health class about development, the doctor said, "What everyone wants is to feel important and included..."

She was talking about 10-12 year old girls, but I think this is pretty much everyone, even adults.

I've started asking my daughter when she comes home, what did you do today to make someone feel important and included? I've started asking myself the same thing.

~

This was on Sam Hamill's Facebook status today--

"A poem is not an expression, nor is it an object. Yet...

Quote of the Day

I was pretty intrigued by this quote:


"Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers."

When I read it I got a knot in my stomach thinking, yes, this is exactly what is wrong with the children of today. However, the quote is attributed to no...

Book Trailer - How To Make a Book Trailer with iMovie

Yes, it seems the new thing these days are book trailers.
The first book trailer I saw was by the wonderful poet, Alison Stine, though I'm not sure she thought of it as a book trailer. It was a wonderful video she posted on her blog that travelled roadways until we arrived at our destination, a box of books which was opened and revealed Ohio Violence (Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry), her book.
Now, Alison obviously did some things right because I remember that video very well. I know...

Forgot one...

This was my other favorite one because it was in my writing studio (aka Shed of Kells). I love that many of my favorite poets are behind me in their book form.

This may be the one I use as it's close, but not too close, and it looks like me. If you were to see this photo, then see me, you wouldn't be confused. There were a few that I liked because they didn't look like me--they had that "she cleans up well" feel. This is what I would look like on a writing day (except I'd be wearing a the...

The Not-So-Authorly Photos

Here are a few of the rejects... though I kind of like the first one--

My Three Favorite Authors Photos from Yesterday

So yesterday's author photo shoot was a lot of fun.

Looking back at the photos, I realize eyeliner might have benefitted me. I don't normally wear it, but I realize when you're outside, the sunlight light takes away pretty much any make-up you're wearing. But maybe that's the look you want.

Anyway, here are my top three picks from the photo shoot.

I'll post the bloopers or the not-so-authorly-photos next--